Hunt for
High-tech
2007
A Hunt for High Tech is a collection of conceptual textiles and animations that seek to harness both nature and technology in an effort to create a new human/animal archetype. This body of work does not imitate the real animal kingdom, but creates a fictional world of imagined human-like animal species. In creating the collection, "I imagined animals that could be genetically manipulated—part robot, part biological organism. I imagined how they would move in their environment and what they felt like to touch. I thought about tactile qualities like the direction of hair growth with its dimensionality and the reflective qualities of hair, fur, and scales. I then took my (imagined) gun and hunted them, in a quest for their extraordinary high-tech furs".
In the studio, Bart Hess manipulated materials that are far from nature, such as plastic, foil, silicone, and clothes pins, to create synthetic skins and furs, magnifying and exaggerating their characteristics until my imagined archetype emerged. Despite the futuristic appearance of the collection, there is very little technology involved. Through traditional craftsmanship and different video-editing techniques, simple materials are altered into otherworldly animations, in which the materials and body merge. The end result is an illusion, a high-tech fantasy in which the forms suggest that they were not made by hand but were grown in a lab or originated from an alien creature.
HFHT.01
Metal and silicone
100 cm x 60 cm
HFHT.02
Lycra, latex, Nylon
100 cm x 60 cm
HFHT.03
Metal, latex, silk
100 cm x 60 cm
HFHT.04
reflection foil
100 cm x 60 cm
INTERVIEW :
WE-MAKE-MONEY-NOT-ART
By Regine
on April 24, 2008 5:13 AM
In the description of A Hunt for Hightech you write that it is "more interesting to imitate an imaginary world"? Why is that?
With a Hunt for Hightech I made a collection of fake fur that touches on elements of fetishism, human instinct and new animal archetypes. With that collection I did not try to mimic real animal kingdoms but create a fantasy world of my own. The way this started was through the process of imagining fantasy animals; animals that could be genetically manipulated, part robot, part organic, how they would move in their environment and what they felt like to touch. I then took my (imagined) gun and 'hunted' them, looking for their extra ordinary, high tech furs. I thought about tactile qualities like reflection, the way the hair grows and three dimensionality and took these characteristics, magnified them, manipulated and exaggerated them.
Can you explain us which kind of materials you have designed for the project A Hunt for Hightech?
I used materials that were not organic or commonly seen in the fashion world, and blended plastics, metallic's, silicon's and technical foils. With these materials I tried to manipulate and re-create the same qualities and tactile feeling my fantasy animal kingdom has.
Can you explain us which kind of materials you have designed for the project A Hunt for Hightech?
I used materials that were not organic or commonly seen in the fashion world, and blended plastics, metallic's, silicon's and technical foils. With these materials I tried to manipulate and re-create the same qualities and tactile feeling my fantasy animal kingdom has.
Your work has been exhibited in many venues and magazines. How does the public react to it?
There seemed to be two reactions from the public, there were people who were not freaked out at all and found it very attractive. These were the people who investigated and were intrigued by the furs and discovered the fabrics were quite soft, even though they were made from needles and sharp metallic's. The other type of people were scared and shocked with the idea of breathing shoes, these were the people who would get hurt touching the furs. One of my intentions was to communicate tactility and spire an emotion between the viewer and the furs, and this happened in both cases.
The models you present in A Hunt for Hightech are futuristic and fascinating. Do you see them more as sculptures or future pieces of clothing?
I really believe these are the fashion furs of the future. Why kill an animal and re-form the fur into a shape? Why not have the animal already shaped to your body, have it living and breathing around you, like the shoes. Whilst the technology is not there yet, in the meantime the animation is used as an inspiration for the fashion industry.
Rijksmuseum Twente Enschede (NL)
Metal and silicone
4,50cm x 150 cm
HUNT FOR HIGH-TECH
MOBILE VERSION ONLINE SOON
Bart Hess
info@barthess.nl
Studio Address :
Gasfabriek 18
5613 CP Eindhoven
the Netherlands